Chapter 170 Chapter 168 Shopping
It’s another beautiful day.
The Fisher family begins to prepare for Christmas.
Dar es Salaam is different from inland cities. Because it is an open port and ships from various countries pass through, it is easy to get many products.
This has also led to currency having a place here. European and Arab businessmen will set up stalls in open areas in Dar es Salaam to sell their products.
"Dear, you're back." Anna asked sweetly. Since arriving in East Africa, the Fisher family has lived a life of drought and flood, and no longer has to live as tight a life as they used to.
The mental state of the Fisher family has also become optimistic and positive, getting rid of the melancholy expressions they once had for life.
"Yes, I just went to the Trade Street to take a look. This is what I bought. Come and take a look." Fisher handed a basket to Anna.
Anna took the basket and saw an oil paper bag, a bag and a jar inside. There was something underneath that she didn't know what it was.
"What is this?" Anna first took out the oil paper bag and asked.
"Open it and take a look," Fisher said.
Anna opened the oil paper bag along the folds, and it turned out to be a bunch of sausage-like things.
"Are there still sausages sold in East Africa?" Anna was a little surprised.
“I didn’t expect anyone to sell this thing on the Trade Street. It is really rare and the price is not too expensive, so I bought it. According to the clerk, it was imported from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Vienna sausage tastes not much different from what we have here,” Fisher said.
“I haven’t seen food from the German region for a long time, and even in Germany we can rarely afford it.” Anna said in surprise.
Although the Fisher family has no worries about food and drink in East Africa, they also have their own troubles, that is, in the eastern region, rice is mainly grown.
Every month Fisher received a salary and family rations from the East African colonies.
The rations distributed in the eastern region are rice. After all, wheat is mainly grown in the interior, and flour, as an important export product, is mainly supplied to Europe.
Rice is different. There is no market for this product in Europe, and the Far East and India are both rice producing areas, so they cannot be sold at a high price.
If you can’t sell it, you can simply use it to feed immigrants. As part of Fisher’s salary, Fisher has no choice.
So the Fisher family was forced to eat rice. With Fisher's financial resources, he could actually buy flour, but the rice was provided free of charge in East Africa, while the flour had to be purchased in cash.
People in this era are conscious of saving money and food to cope with risks. After all, you never know when you will not be able to eat.
However, the Fisher family couldn't stand eating rice all the time, so Fisher still spent some money to buy some flour to keep at home, and occasionally used it to improve the food.
"Dear, we no longer have to live like we do in Germany, and life will get better and better in the future." Fisher said to his wife.
"Yeah!" Anna snuggled into Fisher's arms.
"You haven't seen what's below yet!" Fisher reminded.
Anna took out the jar and looked through the glass jar. There were white particles inside.
"This is table salt. Don't you still have it at home?" "No, this is something I bought from the store in Hechingen. I wonder what it is."
Anna shook her head, she couldn't think of anything else besides salt.
"This is white sugar, imported from the Far East." Fisher revealed the answer.
Sugar is not very cheap in Europe. It basically relies on imports. Ordinary people cannot afford it. However, sugar beets have been grown in Germany to make sugar, but now the scale is small and the output is very limited.
Currently, Europe mainly imports canteens from the Caribbean and other regions. Sugar cane can also be grown in East Africa, but there are so many things that can be grown in East Africa, so it is only grown in small areas in the Great Lakes region.
The white sugar Fisher purchased was indeed imported from the Far East and shipped to East Africa on immigrant ships. This was a incidental matter. In fact, the bulk of it was shipped to Europe.
“This shouldn’t be cheap!” Anna said worriedly.
"The price is indeed a bit high, but now we have this condition, and Christmas is coming, we always have to add some nutrition to the children." Fisher explained.
In East Africa, Fisher's job is high-paying, and only officials and employees of the Hechingen Consortium can beat Fisher in terms of salary.
In fact, ordinary people in East Africa basically live a pretty good life. At least they have enough food to eat, which is very good.
East Africa lacks everything except food. Compared with East Africa’s sparse population and huge arable land and natural resources, living conditions are destined to not be too bad.
Of course, maintaining food and clothing, and occasionally eating meat, is the level that immigrants can achieve.
The difference between Fisher and ordinary immigrants was that he had the skills needed by the East African colonies, so Fisher's salary was far higher than that of ordinary immigrants.
The extra wages mean that the Fisher family has more choices than ordinary immigrants, such as going to the Trade Street to buy the goods they need.
Dar es Salaam Trade Street is actually the commercial district closest to the dock, specially prepared for merchants and sailors.
In East Africa, only a few thousand people can go to the trade street to consume. You must know that the population of the entire East Africa has almost reached two million, which shows the consumption level of the trade street.
As an important port in East Africa, Dar es Salaam has many offices of the Hechingen Consortium and East African colonial government agencies.
The talents in these institutions and institutions are the local consumers in Dar es Salaam who can afford to spend money in the Dar es Salaam trade market.
Fischer is a real employee of the Hechingen Consortium. He was recruited to East Africa through recruitment. He is a talent actively introduced by East Africa, not a nominal employee like ordinary immigrants.
Although ordinary immigrants are also named under the name of the Hechingen Consortium, anyone with a discerning eye knows that they are more similar to the subjects of the Hechingen royal family, especially German immigrants and Slavic immigrants. After they arrived in East Africa, they did not How does it feel different from Europe?
It is not even different from the life of serfs back then. As long as East Africa does not go too far, whether serfs or peasants is a matter of status is not a big deal. At least the cultural level of these immigrants does not matter.
Immigration from the Far East does not have the same feeling as immigrants from Europe. After all, there are no aristocrats in the Far East like Europe. These immigrants from the Far East mainly deal with the landlords in the villages, and the landlords in the Far East obviously have a higher political status in society. Not as prominent as European aristocrats.
After all, Europe pays more attention to the division of people's status, especially among nobles, and there is a clear distinction between nobles and civilians. It is difficult for civilians to become nobles, at least there is no official channel.
In the Far East, in theory, ordinary people can improve their social status through hard work. For example, farmers have the opportunity to become landlords, and ordinary people can pass the imperial examination to become the "scholar" class, but the difficulty is a little bit higher.
(End of this chapter)